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Supermarkets

How supermarkets came to dominate food retail.

Supermarkets: they are ubiquitous yet hard to define, lauded and vilified in roughly equal measures, and in many countries they have a huge influence on what we eat. Technological innovations, big social changes and new shopping habits have all shaped their development and today鈥檚 megastores are a far cry from their small-scale ancestors of the 1930s. And yet, some quirks of supermarket design remain constant: for instance, why are the eggs always so hard to locate in the stores?

Iszi Lawrence navigates supermarket aisles with the help of historian and economist Marc Levinson; Aarti Krishnan, Lecturer in Sustainability at Manchester University; Simona Botti, professor of marketing at London Business School and Forum listeners from around the world.

(Photo: A customer in a supermarket. Credit: Adene Sanchez/ Getty Images)

Available now

49 minutes

Last on

Thu 29 Feb 2024 00:06GMT

Broadcasts

  • Sat 24 Feb 2024 12:06GMT
  • Sun 25 Feb 2024 03:06GMT
  • Sun 25 Feb 2024 17:06GMT
  • Wed 28 Feb 2024 10:06GMT
  • Thu 29 Feb 2024 00:06GMT

Do you use US dollars even though they are not your country鈥檚 official currency?

Do you use US dollars even though they are not your country鈥檚 official currency?

We would love to hear why for an upcoming Forum about the history of the dollar.

Podcast